Clinton Plans December Visit To Ireland

November 28, 2000|By KEVIN CULLEN The Boston Globe

LONDON — President Clinton will make a third and final visit as president to Northern Ireland next month, in what he hopes is a victory lap and what politicians there hope will be an opportunity for him to knock some heads together.

Clinton, the first serving president to visit Northern Ireland, played a crucial role in convincing Irish nationalists and British unionists to sign the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 aimed at ending 30 years of violence.

With the Middle East awash in violence, Northern Ireland is emerging as one of the few foreign policy success stories for the Clinton administration. But the peace process in Northern Ireland remains shaky.

Dissident republican and loyalist paramilitary groups are trying to restart the fighting, and the local power-sharing government is straining over the Irish Republican Army's refusal to disarm and the resistance of Protestant unionists to reforms in the overwhelmingly Protestant police force.

During the Dec. 12 to Dec. 14 trip, Clinton also plans to visit London, where he will meet Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, and Dublin, where he will meet the Irish premier, Bertie Ahern.

John Hume, the moderate nationalist leader, said Clinton's visit will help to focus minds on getting past the disputes over disarming and policing.

"He put peace in our land at the top of his presidency," said Hume, adding that politicians in Northern Ireland needed to have the same priority.